Research Software Discovery: An Overview

Research software is an integral part of scientific investigations. The paper identifies challenges, risks and new opportunities in research software publication and discovery. The diverse code discovery landscape is mapped and agents with their business models identified. Examples for discovery tools and strategies are given to support the classification. Reproducibility of research and reuse of code may improve if software discovery was easier. Researchers conducting a search for existing software in the context of a state-of-the-art report or a software management plan could use this paper as a guideline for their information retrieval strategy.